Most clothes hanger bars for clothes closets are nothing more than cylinderical rod elements that permit the upper hook portion of a clothes hanger to be slidably positioned thereon. While this is satisfactory for most apparel, some garments such as expensive men and ladies suits, and other fine apparel, do not retain their preferred shape and appearance when compressed against or between other garments for extended periods of time. In addition, the quality of finer garments often give them a greater weight which often bends the hanger hook and/or causes the clothes to fall. Various spacer elements have been previously employed but these generally require expensive construction for the spacer elements and these modified hanger systems, thus far, have not proven satisfactory. Thus, there is a definite need in the art for an improved, economical, yet stronger, clothes hanger assembly that will permit hanging of multiple garments in fixed spaced relationship such that the closet space is utilized in a more efficient manner, garments are prevented from relative horizontal movement and pressing against each other and the accessibility to the user's wardrobe is improved.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel clothes hanger support bar and hanger combination that is economical to produce and easily installed by the builder or home owner.
Another object of the present invention is a modular hanger assembly that will tailor itself easily to large and small closets.
A further object of the present invention is a clothes hanger support bar that supports a plurality of clothes hangers in spaced relationship with relative horizontal movement between the hangers being prevented.
Another object of the present invention is a novel clothes hanger support bar and hanger combination that is readily attachable to a closet shelf and provides additional strength to the shelf.
A further object of the present invention is a clothes hanger support bar that prevents garments hung thereon from being crushed by adjacent hanging garments.
An additional object of the present invention is a clothes hanger support assembly that improves the efficient utilization of closet space while also providing a better visual display and accessibility of the clothes stored within the closet.
According to the present invention the foregoing and additional objects are attained by providing an elongated clothes hanger support bar having a top surface, a bottom surface and first and second side surfaces. The top surface of the support bar is disposed in abutting relationship and attached at each end to a closet shelf. A plurality of elongated grooves, having an arcuate or concave cross-sectional area and beginning at the bottom surface and extending toward but stopping short of the top surface of the hanger support bar, are disposed in spaced relationship along the first side surface of the hanger bar. Each groove merges with a slightly tapered bore extending from the first side surface and exiting on the second side surface of the hanger support bar while angling toward, but stopping short of, the bottom surface thereof.
A plurality of clothes hangers, each having a vertically extending neck portion and an angularly directed tip integrally extending from the neck portion, are provided, one each, for the vertically extending concave grooves and angularly directed bores. The hanger neck portions rest in the vertically extending concave grooves with the angular tips being received and extending through the tapered angular bores in the hanger support bar. These grooves and bores maintain the hangers spaced from each other and are prevented from moving horizontally relative to each other to protect clothing supported thereon from becoming wrinkled or mis-shaped due to compressive forces from adjacent clothing. When greater isolation a garment or when a garment bag is employed, the grooves on either side thereof may be left vacant if so desired.